Blender 2.5 Creating a Walk and Run Cycle for a Simple Rig (Monkey Man) Part 1

Creating a walk cycle for a simple rig (monkey man) is covered in this part 1 of the tutorial.

Key points -

Create a walk cycle from just two poses (mirrored and duplicated)

Use the DopeSheet in Action Editor view to save the current action and give it the name 'walk'

Detailed Points -

The first and most important pose of the walk cycle is the open stride
1. the back is rotated slightly forward
2. the near leg is moved forward, the far leg is moved back
3. the near arm is moved back to balance, far arm forward
4. the whole body is moved down slightly

This pose is keyframed at the beginning and end of the cycle.
The mirror image, x-flipped version is keyframed in the middle of the cycle.

This gives a shuffling walk with the ends of the legs in permanent contact with the ground.
To fix this an intermediate pose with a leg lifted off the ground is needed -

1. as the legs cross the far leg needs to be raised
2. the near leg needs to be straightened to take the weight
3. the whole body needs to be moved up slightly.

The intermediate pose needs to be keyframed in between the open stride poses and then keyframed again (x-flipped) further down the time

line.

You should have a basic walk cycle. To save the cycle and start the run cycle in the same file -

1. Go to a DopeSheet window
2. Change the view to Action Editor
3. Name the current action 'walk'
4. Click the plus symbol to create a new action

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Blender
• 2.5
• Creating
• Walk
• Run
• Cycle
• Simple
• Rig
• Monkey
• Man
• tutorial
• howto
• pose
• open
• stride
• balance
• keyframes
• x-flipped
• intermediate
• leg
• arm
• DopeSheet
• Action
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• ian
• scott
• freemovies.co.uk

[strongbullcdm]

but because when I arrived at the end

legs would not go?

only the arms were perfect

I did everything right,

I repeated several times

and yet I can not complete

[ianscott888]

@strongbullcdm Are you using the control bones to pose the legs? are you pressing A to select all bones before inserting key frames? Did you use 'available' for the first set of keyframes? some things to check and try just getting the legs to move for two sets of keyframes.

[Guitarstratdude]

when i paste x flipped, my character goes inta some wied position with no resemblance to a walk cycle at all

[ianscott888]

@Guitarstratdude - a quick reply, are you sure all the bones are selected when you copy, pressing the A key a few times should select and deselect all the bones.

[Mentalist4006]

@Ethaninja In 2.56, in the bone properties, there is a "roll" property. You can change that. I don't know why I have Ctrl + N. Could be for 2.49.

[DrFooBarson]

@ianscott888:

Another great tutorial. I use your jingle, "Go to the frame, make the change, insert the keyframe" all the time. Except in my head it's a heavy metal version. Reeeeemiiiiix!

[blackmoderte]

I liked this It was very simple and clear. Much more clear then most other video tutorials on this site. I look forward to seeing your other ones. I will subscribe.

[Ethaninja]

@Mentalist4006 Yeaaaah, doesn't Ctrl + N open a new file?

[phatpsphacker]

Omg, haha my character is walking backwards!

[Mentalist4006]

@Guitarstratdude I found out why. Your bones may not be rotated right. Use Ctrl + N to align it to the X axis.

[ghanmy]

I watched n tried this again n again on my models. worked all the time .Thank you!